Disneyland Day 2

Here we go!! 

Today's story will be told in pictures, and lots of them. I will try not to include EVERY picture, because there were over 100 for today, but I'm sure you will get a good idea of what we did today in the Happiest Place on Earth!

Our first ride, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! 
Cami cried through the whole thing. 

The Tarzan tree house.

Cami and Grandma in the tree house.

The first of the waiting game, all are being patient @ 10 am . 

In line for the Jungle Safari

Our captains name is Dave, unless we have a poor experience,
then his name is Shannon, that is what he told us.  It was a
really fun ride because of him.

A fuzzy picture on Pirates of the Caribbean.

A tomb stone at the Haunted Mansion.

Frontier Island, we found gold.

Say cheese!  On frontier island.

The roller coaster wasn't running in Frontierville.  Darn.

Eric framing Grandma and Mady.

Cami hugging Cinderella.  She told Cami that
she looked like they could be sisters. 

Cami and Sleeping Beauty.

Cami trying to pull out the Sword in the Stone.
It was loose this year. 

Taking a break while waiting to meet Rapunzel.

Cami and Rapunzel.  Her hair is sooooooo long!

My nephew Taggart is in love with Rapunzel.  He was shy and
funny as she talked to her.  He finally gave her a hug.  Sooo cute.

Eric flying on Dumbo.  he loves it!

Can Dumbo fly us all?  YUP!

Bryer Fox and the kids after Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain.  Cami screamed and cried for the
rest of the ride it scared her so much.   The rest of us had a
great ride.

Such a fun shot of Vickie and her family.  I think Grandma
is going to lay an egg. 

On a final note, we had quite a scare today.  We split up for a ride because some us wanted to ride the train and others wanted to go through the Haunted Mansion.  While we were waiting for the other group to come, Cami wasn't watched and got lost.  It scared me to death. . . . .and everyone else too.  She was missing for about a half an hour, until Chet found her with a good lady and her son who was staying with her until we found her.  She was very brave until she saw me, then started crying, and me too.  I may have appeared calm, but inside I was praying and eliciting all of my angels to help us find her.  It seems Father-in-Heaven sent two, the lady that kept her safe, and Chet who found her, for whom I am so grateful!  I'm also grateful we were all safe today, and had a great time too. 

The Joy is in the Journey Disneyland Day 1

Today we began our vacation to Disneyland!!  It is Memorial Day 2011 and me and five kids loaded up the car and headed to Southern California for a great time, and because Mady and Cami are clogging there on Thursday.  I'm going to try and post something everyday so you can share in our experience.  Today was the journey there.  We THOUGHT that if we left early that we would avoid all of the Memorial Day traffic, but we were wrong.  Immediately when we crossed the CA border the road became a parking lot and we traveled 30 miles an hour until we had to take a break in Baker, CA.  It was then that I found out I had no brake lights, so the stop and go was dangerous because the people behind me didn't know that I was stopping.  Talk about stressfull!!!!  The final ride was slow, long, congested, long, and very stressful for the driver.  Everyone else had a good time.  I had a bag full of games that we played on the way there, and I'm extremely grateful to my friend Maria for preparing a lot of it for me, and for giving me the ideas.   We traveled with my sister Vickie and her family so they kept my back so that no one ran into the back of me.  Chet (Vickie's husband) is a sheriffs deputy so he was a great help, AND, he plans on helping me fix the problem  later tomorrow.  (It is a brake light switch that is going bad).   For the games, I gave everyone in our cars an envelope with a prize in it that they had to rotate around every mile post, then when we got to the CA line we could open the envelopes and see what they won.  That got monotonous after about the first 10 miles, but we had a good laugh about it.  The prizes were silly ones, like Billy Bob teeth, $1,  sing a primary song, candy, etc.  Everyone liked it when they got their prizes though.  We also played a bubble gum contest between cars to see who had the biggest wad of chewed bubblegum when we got to Disneyland.  That was fun blowing bubbles (Cody won our bubble blowing contest) and the wad of gum at the end were even, and became footballs.  ewwwww!   I am now grateful to be at our destination and looking forward to going to Disneyland tomorrow!!!!  Here are a few pictures of our journey:

Cami attempting a bubble.

Mady and a good bubble.

Grandma gets in on the action too!

I blew a bubble and it covered my glasses, not a good idea when driving.

Cody's winning bubble.

They are saying:  WE ARE SO SICK OF BUBBLEGUM!!   
We chewed 18 packs of it to build our football size
gum wad.

A failed bubble. 

A rest in Barstow.  We brought Eric with us to keep us
laughing.  So far he is doing a good job.

Chet and Vickie keeping my back.

My sister Vickie  and her husband Chet.

Dalyon, Taggart, and Wyat riding together.

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!! 9 HOURS LATER!!!!

We are staying at the Best Western across the street from the
park. This is what the mess looks like.  Mess=fun. 

Call me "Mr. President"

Congratulations Austin!!!

Austin was elected to FFA president for the 2011-2012 year a couple of weeks ago and we are so proud of him!  He had to fill out an application, which was 4 pages long, give a speech about what FFA has done for him, and go through an interview, then wait.  His friend McCarty Amy was the president last year and wouldn't tell him the outcome for a few days, until their closing social when the new officer team was announced.  It was painful being patient, but worth it.  He wrote on his face book page "you can call me Mr. President".  He loves the FFA and has made a lot of really great friends.  We are excited to see what he does with it.

McCarty decorated his hat when they were on a FFA outing.

A few of the 2010-2011 officer team, Austin, McCarty, someone I don't know,
and Kris Wilson.  Kris is the new vice president along with Summer Stout.

Go Hurricane FFA!

 When we were in high school it wasn't common for girls to be in the FFA, but now there are a lot of girls participating.  Doug was the FFA president in his chapter in Dayton, ID when he was a senior,and his brothers were also active in that chapter.  My brother Troy was also president in Preston the same year, and my nephew Bracken and niece Heather (Troys kids) are VERY active in the Preston chapter now, as well as my niece Kora is active in the Dixie chapter in St. George.  Years ago, my Dad was in the FFA and my mom put his jacket and awards into a shadow box for him a few Christmases ago.  Now that I have typed all of that, I realize just what a tradition FFA is for our families.  I'm glad Austin is continuing the tradition.

Time for summer haircuts

This morning after my walk Doug asked me if I would give him his "summer haircut", which is really just buzzing his hair down to 1/2 inch off his head.  When I was finished with him I realized that I should have snapped a picture of it for my blog!!!  Since the other boys were looking a bit ragged, I decided it was a good morning for our annual "summer haircuts".  I snapped pictures of Austin, Cody, and Dalyon against their will, and their faces show how much they love to have their hair cut.  It will feel so much better now that the temperatures are warmer, and I always tell them that "they will love me later".

Austin is first in line. . . . don't let the face fool ya, he loves it.

Dalyon, on the other hand, REALLY hates it. 

It took some coaxing, but I finally got Cody into the chair. 
He likes his hair long and curly because "the chicks dig it". 

2011 Graduation

This year we have been privileged to have Austins' friend Eric Colson live with us.  He moved in with us last January and has been a lot of fun to have around.  He was a senior this year, so I have been able to get involved with his graduation a little bit, which is nice because I kind of have an idea of what to do for Austin next year.  We were able to go and see Eric graduate from Seminary last Sunday, and on Tuesday we watched him receive his high school diploma and cheer him on.  Eric moved here from Connecticut four years ago with his Mom and brothers and sister.  He plans to go to Southern Utah University in Cedar City in the fall so we get to have him with us through the summer.  We are very proud of him and his accomplishments in high school and really appreciate having him in our home. 

Here we are with our "other brother from another mother", Eric Colson.
We were also able to get a picture with Austins good friend McCarty Amy,
who also spent a lot of time at our house this year.  She and Austin were on the
FFA officer team together.  She was the president, he was the Sentinel.   

Eric walking. . .. . . he's a blur!

High school graduation for all of our schools in the Washington
County school district are held at the Burns arena at Dixie College in St. George.  This
is the procession in at the beginning. 

After the graduation ceremony Eric was able to go with his family and celebrate.  His dad flew in from Connecticut and his mom and her husband live down the street from us.  He also has both sets of grandparents living in St. George.  McCarty invited us to a barbeque at her home in Anderson Junction (which is north of Toquerville) and we had a great time.  She and her family are patients of Dr. Howards where I work, so I have known them before, and it is always fun to get to know someone a little better like only a barbeque can do.  We laughed and laughed and talked and laughed.  Her family moved here from Idaho a few years ago to run the Diamond G ranch, which does stock contracting for rodeos around the west.  Cody loved talking with McCarty's dad Calvin about the rodeo stock, and her mom Dixie never leaves a dull moment with her chatter.  It felt like we have been friends for a long time, and we were sad to have to call it a night.  Even though we really didn't have our own child graduating, we enjoyed everyone elses.  Next year will be the real thing.

Cody's still fiddlin'

Cody had his orchestra concert last Thursday, May 12 at the Hurricane Intermediate School.  Secretly he loves to play the violin, but puts up a "song and dance" to make me think he doesn't.  He has taken for 3 years now and was in the Intermediate school Intermediate orchestra.  They did an Irish number that they had memorized and performed standing up.  I will try to put the video on, but non of them want to load onto this blog for me.  Enjoy the pictures of Cowboy Cody and his fiddle. 

Waiting to play.



Playing. . . . .



Standing for their Irish number.  They were swaying back and forth,
(thus the motion movement fuzziness) and marching through each other.
It was a really neat number.